Today was excellent!!! Twig picking in the morning then out sailing for most of the middle of the day. Winds were supposed to come up to 25 knots in the afternoon so we practiced early. We got the heavy 4 up and sorted trim and hoist numbers. We then ran all the halyard lock tests successfully and moved to main halyard marking for the 3 reef points. By time we completed our tasks while dodging various ferries, police boats, Finn regattas with Jimmy Spithill in attendance we were out the Heads. One last boat approached on starboard doing 30 knots… a fully foiling tri-maran… couldn’t have avoided them if I wanted to. They had coach and press boats chasing them as well so sort of busy, reminded me of last year’s Joe Mele International press operations ?
So out of the heads with all sorted and we turned to come back in. Sam had joined us for the day which helped so we launched the FRO… nice sail for heavier weather than we had. Dodging the busy Harbour traffic we hit easy 12 knots in 14 knots of breeze. You can just feel the potential of this boat when the wind loads us up… no such thing as hull speed limitations for the new Lindy.
We gybed our way down Sydney Harbour with the FRO, something we wouldn’t ordinarily do as we typically have a kite up. The runners are tricky to sort when off the wind with the square topped main… will need to watch that. We finally cleared a large 470 regatta and gybed over and ran under the Sydney Harbour bridge with the staysail up. Testing went great and we headed in for lunch and a cold one. Then back to he boat to load the PLBs in the new Spinlock life vests. Then crew roster numbers were added to the crew extra gear bags mounted on the keel trunk. Joe put a pair of socks and a Lindy vest in his and it was full. Be warned, we are looking for a spot for sea boots to be stored while not being worn, fingers crossed.
Crew provisioning on for tomorrow. Rafa thinks the freeze-dried spaghetti is an offence to Italian culture ? Looking at the usual power bars, fresh fruit and the like along with a decent main once a day. Need to keep regular while sitting to pee with a crash helmet and seat belt on… good grief!
A few pics from today, boat is awesome, can’t say it enough!!!!
A rare photo of Joe actually doing something!
Carla working port runner!
Heading for Harbour Bridge while prepping for the staysail!
Our nuclear powered heavy 4!
Luckiest driver alive!
Late afternoon with iconic backdrop!
The famous Stevens designed Dorade!
And that was the day. We moved slips again today and we are now next to a Volvo 70… looks sort of tankish to me! ?